Nick Hitchcock's Bio
Texas Director of Operations
Hired in 2008, Nick Hitchcock has served in several engineering and management roles in the company’s Austin office. Starting out at the Michigan office, and moving to Texas in July 2010, he now serves as the Director of Texas Operations.
Blog
Siemens defines five lifecycle phases for its automation products. This article explains what each phase means for hardware, software and product support. It outlines popular Siemens control system equipment that is currently in a discontinuation phase and their recommended migration...
BlogControl Systems Integration
This comprehensive two-part guide covers scenarios where a control systems upgrade can be beneficial, and insight into when a complete replacement is needed.
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BlogControl Systems Integration
You’ve decided to upgrade your legacy control system. Now what’s next? In Part 2, we highlight what questions you need to ask when planning this project.
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Blog
In the world of automation, choosing the right machine vision system can make all the difference. With the proper framework, companies can achieve faster, more accurate quality checks, and greatly enhance the efficiency of their production lines. With broad industry...
Asset TrackingBlogSiemens
Unleash the true potential of industrial automation with Siemens SIMATIC WinCC OA, the robust SCADA system with transformative capabilities and seamless integration with Siemens S7-1500 PLC. WinCC OA revolutionizes data visualization and control, empowering businesses to achieve peak performance and...
Blog
We recently completed a robot cell project for a machine manufacturer which was the result of collaboration between a few teams. Our customer designed and built the machine. Two specialists designed the two stations within the cell. The Patti Engineering team was...
BlogControl Systems Integration
Get insight into Siemens S7-1500S Software Controller from Patti Engineering expert Nick Hitchcock What is the Siemens S7-1500S Software Controller Siemens’ S7-1500S Software Controller is a virtualized PLC that runs on an industrial PC. This PC-based automation can be programmed just...
BlogRobotics
Blog post by Ian Mogab, Controls Engineer Often times you may hear of manufacturers opting to replace their human workforce with robots in order to increase productivity. However, there are some drawbacks to doing this; robots are not good at...
BlogRobotics
You probably already know that traditional industrial robots can be used in places that are too dirty, dangerous, or dull for humans. In fact, manufacturers have often used them for applications like lifting car frames, palletizing heavy items, or spraying...
BlogCompanyFANUC
Patti Engineering has a long history with FANUC Robotics. In fact, Patti Engineering has been working with FANUC robots since the inception of our company in 1991. Now, we are a FANUC Authorized Integrator, in addition to being a certified...
BlogControl Systems IntegrationIgnition
Since deciding to join the Ignition certified integrator program and investing in training, our engineers have really grown to like Inductive Automation’s SCADA platform, Ignition. Our engineers have been finding many different use cases that take advantage of everything that...
Asset TrackingBlog
We recently completed a robot cell project for a machine manufacturer which was the result of collaboration between a few teams. Our customer designed and built the machine. Two specialists designed the two stations within the cell. The Patti Engineering team was...
BlogControl Systems IntegrationSiemens
Going green and identifying energy-efficient sustainable solutions is a hot topic of conversation across the globe. Advances in technologies are driving sustainable city development. Today, city governments are recognizing that using technology to build and improve infrastructure efficiency and effectiveness...
BlogControl Systems Integration
Real Ale Brewing Company is the home of a dedicated team of brewers producing high-quality handcrafted ales. The company has experienced consistent growth year over year, and is nationally ranked as the 54th largest regional craft brewery. Located in the...
BlogIndustry 4.0 / DigitalizationSiemens
This week, we released our first app on the MindSphere Store. MindSphere is the open cloud-based IoT operating system from Siemens. The CNC Performance Improvement and Predictive Maintenance app allows more accurate planning of machine maintenance. Originally developed for a...
BlogRobotics
A common misconception about Robot Return on Investment (ROI) is that labor cost savings achieves an acceptable payback period. This is often not the case – simply replacing a human operator with a robot is not always a smart decision. A robot needs to fit into the...
BlogControl Systems Integration
This week, several of us tackled programming solutions where timers were the linchpin. On one project, a timer was extending cycle time, which caused a huge production back up. Changing the length of the timer restored smooth production. On another,...
BlogControl Systems Integration
Blog post by Shahrokh Yousefi, Controls Engineer, Patti Engineering Texas Office The Object-Oriented (O-O) approach to programming has long proven successful in software applications, but is not common in industrial automation software development. There are many benefits to this approach...
BlogControl Systems Integration
Blog Post by Patti Engineering Senior Engineer Nick Hitchcock, P.E Recently, we worked on a project to monitor and control equipment over distances. In our case, we were controlling and monitoring water wells spread throughout a city. Originally, the wells...
BlogCompanyTexas
Blog post by Steve Palmgren, VP of Texas Operations Exactly 6 years ago today, I found myself trying to "help" our cats in the parking lot of a gas station at 2am on our 28-hour nonstop drive to Austin from Michigan. ...
